Personal Demon is wonderful.
I know, that isn’t very objective, but there you are. Armstrong’s books just keep getting better and better.
This book features Hope and Lucas, but mostly Hope. Hope Adams is a tabloid reporter and an Expisco half-demon, daughter of Lucifer. As she says, “Not Satan. A totally different guy.”
Hope is approached by Benicio Cortez to try to break in to a gang which seems to be wreaking havoc on the supernaturals of Miami. She agrees and immediately gets drawn into gang life. The gang is, apparently, trying to put an end to the Cortez Cabal. Clearly Benicio, as head of it, has an interest in finding out what’s going on.
Having two narrators was confusing, if I forgot to read the title of the chapter to see who it was, otherwise, it was good to have both perspectives.
I don’t want to give away the plot, but let’s just say that Lucas reconsiders his anti-Cabal stance and may be working with his father more closely. Hope has the “adventure” she was looking for and explores her relationship with Karl more fully. The ending surprised me, which also delighted me. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Jaime Vegas, who we originally met in Industrial Magic, is the narrator for this book in the Women of the Otherworld series. Jaime is a necromancer which means that she can communicate with the dead. In some books, like Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, a necromancer doesn’t talk to ghosts, she raises and controls the dead. Hamilton’s Anita Blake is that sort of necromancer. Jaime CAN raise the dead but it’s not something she does routinely. In fact, though she knows it’s possible, it’s in NHI that she raises her first dead person.
The story begins with Jaime being invited to participate in a television special about “spiritualists” who claim they can talk to the dead. The show’s producers want Jaime, and 2 others, to have a séance and find out who or what killed Marilyn Monroe. Jaime is the only one among the three who is actually “gifted.” Things begin to go awry, however, when Jaime is pestered by a type of ghost she has never encounted. With the help of Eve, Kristof, Jeremy and a new character, Hope, Jaime helps these ghosts.
No Humans Involved was more of a page turner than other books. Armstrong more fully developed characters from previous books. Jeremy, for instance. The reader learns a lot about Jeremy and why he is the way he is.
At the risk of sounding too much like a fan, this series just keeps getting better and better.
Elena is the only female werewolf. Werewolves are either born with the gene – and it’s only passed to boys – or bitten and women usually die. Except Elena. Elena was Bitten but she lived.
The pregnancy is troubling – there hasn’t been a werewolf pregnancy so no one knows what to expect. It would be an understatement to say she was bored witless, so when something comes up that requires her expertise – and seems harmless – she jumps at it.
Of course, it isn’t harmless. Elena inadvertently opens a time portal and a serial killer and 2 zombies are loose in Toronto. Elena, Clay and Jeremy stay in Toronto to try to send the serial killer and his zombies back. Along the way, they ask Zoe, a vampire, and Jaime, the necromancer, for help. For some reason, the serial killer and his zombies are targeting Elena specifically. The Pack and its friends have to find out why and what to do to close the time portal.
The ending is nearly saccharine but the reader – at least this reader – can’t help but cheer for Elena and Clay.
Eve Levine is a ghost. In “Industrial Magic” she makes a deal with The Fates and, if Paige and Lucas are returned to life, she’ll owe The Fates a favor. Now they’ve decided to call it in.
What they want seems to be impossible. The Nix, a demi-demon, has accidentally been let loose in the world. For, oh, several hundred years. She’s been nearly caught but has escaped. Eve’s task is to track her down and bring her in, so to speak. She’s scared witless but she isn’t alone: she has the help of Kris (who is her daughter’s father and the love of her life) and Tsriel, an angel.
The Afterlife, according to these books, is very different from what most of us think of as “Heaven.” Eve encounters various things: a pirate’s enclave and a school for poltergeists, for example. There is a version of what hell must be like but, in this case, was reserved for the worst among us: serial killers and like that.
The story goes back and forth between Nix and Eve, which can get confusing. I had to look back a few times to remember who this person or that person was. I have to say, as you can probably tell by the lackluster thoughts here, I didn’t really care for this book. I am a big fan of Armstrong’s but this one just didn’t thrill me.
On the plus side, we see more of Savannah, of Paige and Lucas (who got married between Industrial Magic and Haunted) and Jaime. Since Jaime is going to have her own book coming up, that’s a good thing.
I’m always thrilled when I find a new writer who a) I think is amazing; b) who is writing a series, which I love; c) there are several books to the series before I find them; and d) whose writing gets better with each book. That describes Kelley Armstrong perfectly.
The Women of the Otherworld series is slightly different in that the narrator of each book changes. Some narrators have more than one book, but there are several. Armstrong does a good job of introducing the narrator at least a book in advance and then also characters from the other books show up. For example, Elena is the narrator in the first two books, Paige shows up in book 2, Paige is the narrator of books 3 and 4 but Elena is in both of those, though not as the focus of the story.
Industrial Magic is the second book narrated by Paige Winterborne, a witch. In this book, she and her boyfriend, sorcerer Lucas, are asked by Lucas’ father (a powerful Sorcerer leader) to investigate why supernatural teens are being killed. That’s all I can really tell you without spoiling the story for you.
What I CAN tell you is that the story is suspenseful yet is character-driven, there a couple of new characters that you’ll enjoy and one thing that is highly implausible – but then isn’t the entire concept?
Overall, I’d say this is the best of The Women of the Otherworld and I can’t wait to read the next!
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Book
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Narrator
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Bitten
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Elena
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Stolen
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Elena (Paige is introduced)
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Dime Store Magic
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Paige (Lucas and Eve are introduced)
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Industrial Magic
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Paige (More Lucas, more Eve, Jaime is introduced)
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Haunted
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Eve
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Broken
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Elena
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No Humans Involved
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Jaime
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Personal Demon
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Hope & Lucas
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Living with the Dead
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Robyn
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Book 3.
In this book, we revisit Paige and Savannah from Stolen, as well as Leah. Paige is a witch who is, at a very young age, Coven Leader because her mother died. Savannah is a very powerful witch whose birth father, a sorcerer, is trying to get her from Paige, for some reason.
It’s hard for me to explain these books because there are subplots and subthemes. In this one, for Paige, it’s about realizing that the women she’d considered family and her allies are not.
Book 2.
I’ve decided that I *really* like this series. This was so well-written. Essentially, Someone is capturing supernaturals to study them for some reason. Elena - the werefwolf from Bitten - is captured. The story revolves around her experiences and then her attempt to escape and what happens next.
We also meet the main characters of the next books. If I didn’t have so many books at home to read, I’d go right over to amazon.com and buy the rest of this series.
So, Elena is a “mutt” - a werewolf without a Pack. Well, she has a Pack but she left them to try to live as normal a human life as possible. It’s harder than you might think when she has to Change regularly. Oh, not every full moon as some books would have you believe but frequently enough.
Then, Pack members start getting killed and Elena goes home to try to help. Things progress from there. Elena has several fairly startling - to her - revelations along the way.
